It was Lily Tomlin who said “I always wanted to be somebody, but now I real ize I should have been more specific.”

President Obama must know the feeling.

He took office wanting to remake America and he succeeded in some big ways. From the stimulus to health care to auto bailouts to financial regulation, he has put major notches in his victory belt.

Yet instead of applause, Obama finds himself the target of voter disgust and anger. His poll ratings are deep in the danger zone and show no signs of climbing out.

Ah, if only he had absorbed Tomlin’s wisdom. Then he would have remade America in ways most people actually wanted!

The inverse relationship between his legislative victories and his falling public support reflects a growing conviction that Washington is disconnected from the concerns of most Americans. The result is that Obama loses support around the country for every victory he wins in Congress.

It’s a losing-by-winning dynamic, with real consequences. His popularity now has sunk underwater, with more people disapproving of his job performance than approving.

The average of the last two weeks, as tabulated Friday by RealClearPolitics.com, showed him having a meager 45.8 percent approval against 49.3 percent disapproval. Those anemic ratings, especially with disapprovals approaching a majority, are a flashing red light for Democrats who have gone against the public repeatedly to impose his and their agenda.

In historic terms, this is an odd predicament, with most presidents, mayors and governors suffering at the polls when they do too little. Harry Truman’s 1948 campaign against the “Do Nothing Congress” remains a model of turning a demand for activist government into a winning political theme.

But the unprecedented price tag and sweeping nature of Obama’s agenda, along with Dems’ lock on Washington and stubbornly high unemployment, have turned activism into a liability. Many voters have expressed shock that Obama is far more liberal than he said he was, so he is suffering a trust deficit as well as a financial one. Congress is paying the price, too, with a recent survey finding only 11 percent approve of the job it is doing. That should translate into big Republican gains come November.

Yet the White House shows little sign of compromise and still believes Obama’s charisma and campaign-style talent can save the day, as it did in the 2008 campaign.

The president’s appearance on “The View” last week was part of a charm offensive. Later that same day, he told big-ticket contributors in New York he’ll be traveling more often to sell his achievements.

“I’ve got my message across before and I’ll do it again,” he reportedly said. “This I know how to do.”

Vice President Joe Biden went further, saying no more major initiatives were coming and the next 90 days would mostly be dedicated to campaigning. “The hard lifting is done,” he said. But Biden being Biden, he couldn’t resist the opportunity to put his foot in his mouth with a jab at voters.

The administration’s achievements, he said, “are so big, so heavy, that the American people don’t understand what’s in it for them yet.”

Or maybe they do, and that’s why they’re unhappy. Either way, we’ll know in November.

Mike’s lesson plan: Push students harder

Debates over test scores in New York schools often turn into propaganda wars, with everything from union contracts to racial disparities thrown into the mix. Deciphering results often becomes a contest of competing spins.

That’s why it was so refreshing to hear Mayor Bloomberg’s insightful reaction to the tough new state standards, which sharply reduced the number of city students scoring passing grades.

While 69 percent were proficient in English last year, only 42 percent are this year. In math, the number fell from 82 percent to 54 percent.

Yet the mayor, who has often hailed past results, was not defensive. He focused instead on why education matters, and why all New Yorkers should embrace the higher standards.

“I’ve always believed that the best way to improve student achievement is to demand higher results by making the tests harder and demanding better scores, because we should never doubt our children’s ability to rise to any challenge,” he said in little-noted remarks that deserve to be quoted at length. “All of us, whether we’re children or adults, if people ask us to do more, we work harder and we don’t always get to the level they ask, but we certainly do more.”

He said the previous test of proficiency “really isn’t adequate” because “an enormous number of our kids, when they get out of high school and get to City University schools, they need remedial help, and I think that tells it all.” (For the class of 2008, 75 percent of city grads entering community colleges needed remediation.)

Bloomberg next addressed the changing world economy. “What we’re trying to do is to put everybody on notice — parents, teachers, principals, students — that you’re going to have to do more in a more competitive world. High-school education is something that I guess lots of people say is necessary in order to enter the middle class when you get out into the workforce. I think what is also true is that that is no longer really accurate. Needing a junior college, a two-year college, degree is probably more reflective of what’s needed to really be successful and we are fast going in the direction of needing a four-year degree in order for the average person to be able to be so successful that they can share in the Great American Dream.

“In this increasingly competitive and knowledge-based economy, we need young people to acquire the foundations of learning early so when they enter high school they should be ready to do high-school work, when they go off to college they should be ready to do college work, and when they get to their first jobs they should be able to thrive.”

Well said, and enough said. The challenge is for educrats to use the new standards and put the mayor’s practical vision into action in every school every day. Starting now.

Another dry idea

Apparently everything in New York is hunky-dory, so the City Council has time to get involved in Arizona’s immigration law. A push for a boycott got shelved for a ban on council members and staff using city money to travel to Arizona. The result is symbolic, but still off-key.

Queens Democrat Peter Vallone Jr. voted no and got to the point, saying, “When Arizona starts telling New York what to do about terrorism, that’s when we can start telling Arizona what to do about illegal immigration.” Bingo.

California pols’ budget

California is flat broke, but still crazy enough to spend $50 million to stop suicide jumpers on the Golden Gate Bridge. Officials spent $5 million to design a mesh net hanging below the bridge to catch jumpers, and need $45 million more to build and install it.

Here’s a cheaper thought: Maybe it’s the Nurse Ratcheds running the state who are making people so eager to flee the Cuckoo’s Nest.